ation: HOW LUMBER IS SAWED IN THE ORIENT--THERE ARE
PRACTICALLY NO SAW MILLS.]
{138}
[Illustration: A QUOTATION FROM CONFUCIUS.]
This is the upper part of a scroll kindly written for the author by
Mr. Kung Hsiang Koh (or Alfred E. Kung as he signs himself in
English). Mr. Kung is a descendant of Confucius (Kung Fut-zu) of the
seventy-fifth generation, and the complete quotation of which the
scroll is a reproduction in Chinese characters reads as follows:
"Ssu-ma Niu asked for a definition of the princely man."
"The Master said: 'The princely man is one who knows neither grief
nor fear.' 'Absence of grief and fear?' said Niu, 'Is this the mark
of a princely man?' The Master said, 'If a man look into his heart
and find no guilt there, why should he grieve? Or of what should he
be afraid?'"
{136 continued}
The Yangtze River trip from Hankow to Shanghai, mentioned in my last
letter, I found very interesting. We were three days going the 600
miles. The Yangtze is the third largest river in the world and
navigable 400 miles beyond Hankow, or 1000 miles in all. It would be
navigable much farther but for a series of waterfalls. Nearly thirty
miles wide toward the mouth, its muddy current discolors the ocean's
blue forty miles out in the Pacific, I am told. In fact, I think {139}
it must have been that distance that I last saw the great turgid
stream off the Shanghai harbor. Even as far up as Hankow the river
becomes very rough on windy days. Consequently, when I wished to go
across to Wuchang, I found that the motor boat couldn't go, so
tempestuous were the waves, but a rather rickety looking little native
canoe called a "sampan," with tattered sails, bobbing up and down like
a cork, finally landed me safely across the three or four miles of
sea-like waves. All the way from Hankow to Peking one encounters all
sorts of Chinese junks and other odd river-craft. In many cases they
look like the primitive Greek and Roman boats of which one sees
pictures in the ancient histories. The Chinese are excellent sailors
and manage their boats very skilfully. The greatest canal that the
world knows was begun by them in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and
finished thirteen centuries ago.
Until very recently, however, the Chinese have not wanted railways.
Coming from Hankow to Shanghai I passed in sight of the site of the
old Woosung-Shanghai Railway, the first one built in China; but before
it got well st
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